Tutorial needed for fixing corrupt drivers and programs, please

I've never had problems with "locked" drivers or programs before, if there was a problem it has always been possible to reinstall the driver or program completely and just start over again.....Until I got Windows XP home edition!! I've only used XP for a few months (haven't really got any W2K experience either) and have already, on several occasions had a program or driver that got stuck in the system, i.e. I couldn't uninstall via the add/remove programs, or with the driver/programs own uninstaller, or fix it by reinstalling on top of it, and the corrupted/incompatible install was blocking the correct install!

So my question is: what do an experienced, hardcore, highleveled tech-guy do in this situation???? (Other than reinstall, or use last known...., or restore system)
There must be some sort of standard procedure for these problems... or what!?? :sad:

Safe mode as a rule, and/or physically removing the hardware plus a little judicious registry editing :D

...So the procedure would be:

Remove the hardware, boot to safe-mode, remove all related files, remove all related reg. keys!??

I've had some troubles with an old version of MiraScan (think it was v3.20) where I couldn't force the puter to use a new version I installed on top of the old! The old one also still appeared in the All Programs menu! So here I would search for reg. keys named *Mira* and just delete them all, along with the program files??

How would you know how to do this registry editing correctly, when you have no clue to which keys the app/driver makes and/or changes??

Thanx!!

ummm in my case mostly intuition, trial and error for registry editing....

When you look in the properties for a device, you can see the list of driver files used... you can then search the registry for those files and when the device matches up with the files in the registry I export that key then delete it. (And import it back if I got it wrong).

The devices are laid out in hkey local machine, and are usually easy to find... its the accompanying software that is usually a pain.

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Originally posted by Chrej
How would you know how to do this registry editing correctly, when you have no clue to which keys the app/driver makes and/or changes??

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Very carefully!

This would be the girls way ! :D

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ummm in my case mostly intuition, trial and error for registry editing....

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& this would be the boys way -

BACKUP registry then

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Remove the hardware, boot to safe-mode, remove all related files, remove all related reg. keys

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Of course..... :rolleyes: :D :D :D :guns:

...hmmm...no easy way like I had hoped for then! :eek2:

Thanx for all your advice guys, I think I'm now a lot better prepared to do battle with stupid apps and drivers!! :cool: